The present invention is related to a faucet valve chamber body in which the inlet tube and the main tube body are both made by milling. Therefore, the inner and outer surfaces thereof have good precision and are free from any sand hole. When mounting the valve chamber body on bath tubs or washing basins with different wall thickness, it is only necessary to mill the inlet tube and main tube body with a length meeting the wall thickness thereof. Therefore, it is unnecessary to manufacture a number of molds so that the cost is greatly lowered.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional faucet valve chamber structure installed on a bath tub or a washing basin. The faucet valve chamber structure includes a valve chamber body 10, a handle seat 70, an upper clamping block 71, a resilient washer 72, a sealing ring 73, a lower clamping block 74, a fitting cap 75 and a controlling valve 76. The valve chamber body 10 is a hollow body made by integral casting and formed with a T-shape. The upper end is formed with a valve chamber 11 with a certain depth. The middle portion is provided with an integrally extending inlet tunnel 12. A step section 121 with larger diameter is formed between the upper end of the inlet tunnel 12 and the valve chamber 11. The circumference of the step section 121 and the inlet tunnel 12 is spaced from the inner wall of the valve chamber body 10 to define an annular outlet passage 13. The upper end of the valve chamber body 10 is formed with an outer thread section 14 with smaller diameter. The edge of the upper opening of the valve chamber body 10 is cut with two opposite locating notches 15. The middle portion of the valve chamber body 10 is formed with a main outer thread section 6 with a certain length. An outlet/inlet sleeve 17 is adjacent to lower end of the main outer thread section 16. A lower side of the outlet/inlet sleeve 17 is formed with an inlet tube 18 and a lateral side thereof is formed with an outlet tube 19. The inlet tube 18 and outlet tube 19 respectively communicate with the inlet tunnel 12 and the annular outlet passage 13. The outer circumference of the end of the inlet tube 18 is formed with an inlet outer thread section 181. The outer circumference of the end of the outlet tube 19 is formed with an outlet outer thread section 191. A lever handle 701 is disposed on one side of the handle seat 70. The handle seat 70 is formed with internal controlling cavity 702. The upper and lower clamping blocks 71, 74 are formed with central main thread holes 711, 741. The fitting cap 75 is formed with a central stepped hole with larger lower section and smaller upper section. The wall of the larger section is formed with an inner thread section 751. The upper end of the controlling valve 76 is provided with a controlling boss 761 for fitting into the cavity 702 of the handle seat 70. The outer circumference of the controlling valve 76 is formed with two opposite locating projecting blocks 762.
According to the above arrangement, the conventional structure has some shortcomings as follows:
1. The valve chamber body 10 is made by integral casting. After cast, it is impossible to process the wall surfaces of the inlet tunnel 12 and the narrow annular outlet passage 13. Therefore, the precision of the surfaces of the walls of the inlet tunnel 12 and the annular outlet passage 13 will be very poor. As a result, the rough surfaces will affect the water flow and result in unsmooth discharge of water.
2. After cast, sand holes will more or less leave on the inner and outer surface of the valve chamber body 10. The outer, surface can be further processed to remove the sand holes. However, it is impossible to remove the sand holes formed on the walls of the inlet tunnel 12 and the annular outlet passage 13. Moreover, the sand holes will pass through the wall between the inlet tunnel 12 and the annular outlet passage 13. This leads to leakage of water from the valve chamber body 10.
3. The valve chamber body 10 is made by integral casting. After cast, it is hard to process the inner wall of the valve chamber body 10. Moreover, the annular outlet passage 13 is in a nearly close state and can be hardly visually checked. Therefore, the ratio of good products is relatively low and defective products may be sold on market to affect the reputation of the manufacturer.
4. Bath tubs or washing basins 80 have varied thickness of walls.
Therefore, it is necessary to manufacture multiple sets of molds for producing different sizes of valve chamber bodies 10 to meet the wall thickness of the bath tubs or washing basins. This increases cost for the molds and relatively lowers profit.
5. The handle seat 70 cannot be entirely attached to the upper plane face of the bath tub or washing basin 80. Therefore, when the handle seat 70 is damaged and needs to be replaced, it is necessary to replace the upper clamping block 71 together with the handle seat 70. When replacing the upper clamping block 71, the valve chamber body 10 is not located on upper side and will drop down. After dropping, it is necessary to again lock the valve chamber body 10. This procedure is troublesome.
6. When replacing the handle seat 70, it is necessary to replace the upper clamping block 71 together with the handle seat 70. This leads to waste of resource and increased cost.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved faucet valve chamber body. The inlet tube and the main tube body are both made by milling. Therefore, the inner and outer surfaces thereof are polished faces without roughness so that the water flow will not be affected and the water can be smoothly discharged.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above faucet valve chamber body in which the inlet tube and the main tube body are both made by milling. Therefore, the inner and outer surfaces thereof are free from any sand hole as resulted from casting. Therefore, when the water is shut off, the water is prevented from leaking from the sand holes.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide the above faucet valve chamber body in which the inlet tube, the main tube body and the outlet/inlet sleeve of the valve chamber body are first respectively processed and then assembled. Therefore, prior to assembly, these parts can be visually entirely checked. Therefore, defective products can be sorted.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide the above faucet valve chamber body in which when mounting the valve chamber body on bath tubs or washing basins with different wall thickness, it is only necessary to mill the inlet tube and main tube body with a length meeting the wall thickness thereof. Therefore, it is unnecessary to manufacture a number of molds so that the cost is greatly lowered.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein: